Music’s relationship to the natural world is an unsteady one. On one hand, it seems contradictory to celebrate nature using artificial instruments that are, after…
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Category: Reviews
MADAME OVARY (Inis Nua): Theater or therapy?
Madame Ovary is a staged memoir about a young woman who survived cancer; it is the fourth female solo show opening just this week:
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[NYC] TRANSLATIONS (Irish Rep): Searching for clues
The danger with a Brian Friel play is charm. No stage Irishmen here at Irish Rep’s production, no comical drunkenness. Another danger, especially in a…
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THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM (Azuka): Impassioned and interesting sidestepping
In a world full of rooms which are full of elephants, a lot of sidestepping is required of us all.
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CAMP SIEGFRIED (Theatre Exile): An unlikely love story
Love happens, even in a setting dedicated to concentrated evil, as an American girl becomes a fierce Nazi uber-princess.
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WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME (Arden): A witch’s cauldron of sometimes magic
Even the most hallowed document is no match for a teenage girl, as Heidi Schreck reveals in her play, What the Constitutions Means to Me.…
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[NYC] MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG (Hudson Theater)
This is vintage Sondheim, the unimaginable flop now on Broadway again, restored to its dazzling, heart-wrenching brilliance. Merrily We Roll Along has been called his most personal,…
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NO EXIT (Quintessence): A new translation of a hellishly absurd classic
Quintessence Theater’s founding artistic director Alex Burns, has written a new translation from the original French
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[NYC] PURLIE VICTORIOUS (Music Box Theatre): A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch
Ossie Davis’s brilliant and hilarious play is part vaudeville, part sermon. And if preaching is theater, theater is preaching. And the lesson is that “faith…
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ASSASSINS (Arden): A celebration of psychopaths
The wall of the F. Otto Haas Stage features pictures of targets and X’s for murdered presidents. Starting with John Wilkes Booth’s killing of Abraham…
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TARTUFFE (Lantern): Delightfully over-the-top
Before he became a celebrated playwright, Jean-Baptiste Poquelan was a poor thing in a touring shoestring theater company. Although he had wanted to be a…
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10 Days in a Madhouse (Opera Philly): This is not a time for quiet art
Director Joanna Settle wants you to know that 10 Days in a Madhouse is not just an opera. It is an “announcement … almost a…
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10 Dates with Mad Mary (Inis Nua): A real piece of work returns
10 Dates with Mad Mary is playing upstairs at a favored watering hole, Fergie’s Pub. The show was so popular last year that it’s back!
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TWELFTH NIGHT (Wilma): Beach blanket Bard
There’s a lot of Twelfth Night going around in the Philadelphia area, all different. The Wilma conjures a fresh seaside setting. A dock moves forward.…
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TWELFTH NIGHT (Wilma): Foolery shines everywhere
“Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun; it shines every where.” Leaving Copernicus aside, the Fool’s wry remark is an apt description…
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TWELFTH NIGHT (Lantern): Some are born great
Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night (1599-1600), one of his few fantasy plays, immediately before he penned his incomparable Hamlet (1600-1601). As Artistic Director Charles McMahon describes…
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TITANIC (Fulton Theater): 60-second review
Featuring a large cast of fantastic singers, Fulton Theater’s production of Titanic is worth the drive to Lancaster. Telling the story of the infamous ocean…
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TWELFTH NIGHT (Lantern): Shall we set about some revels?
“Shall we set about some revels?” Yes! The battle begins: Lantern Theater Company opened its excellent and enjoyable production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night; soon to…
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GALILEE (Azuka): A tale from down under
A small town’s main business—tourism— dries up and bit by bit small businesses follow.
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THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG (1812): Fall-off-your-chair hilarity
This is not the admiring smirk or a contemptuous Ha-ha!, but fall-off-your-chair, eye-mopping hilarity.
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